


When the World Paused, There You Were

by ScribblesInTheMargins



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: 18OI AU Week 2020 (Yuri!!! on Ice), 18OI AU Week 2020: Day 6, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, M/M, Pining, Potya being adorable, Potya wants to be a ballerina, Set during Covid, Yuri is a dancer, alternate universe - Shops, exercise videos, otabek is a mechanic, social distancing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:00:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24565000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScribblesInTheMargins/pseuds/ScribblesInTheMargins
Summary: Stuck at home, Otabek Altin is a mechanic looking to stay in shape with only internet videos to work with.  That's when he saw him.Yuri Plisetsky is trying to keep his studio afloat with video revenue and zoom classes.Potya is a little matchmaker.
Relationships: Otabek Altin/Yuri Plisetsky
Comments: 34
Kudos: 148
Collections: 18OI AU Week 2020





	When the World Paused, There You Were

**Author's Note:**

> This is Day six of the 18+ on ice Discord's AU event. [Server Link](https://discord.gg/TYMxcAB)
> 
> If you're new to my writing, I hope you like these little stories.
> 
> Comments and Kudos are always loved

**When the world paused, there you were**

The first day that the world paused, Otabek cleaned his apartment. He'd been meaning to do it for a while, just things at the garage had been busy. 

By the second day, his small apartment was cleaned and his shelves stocked up to stay home for a few weeks. 

One week into the world pausing, he was bored. Some people when they got bored could just watch TV, but Otabek had always been an active person. His work was hoping to open soon, but for now, his same old workouts in the house had gotten boring. Well, they were boring. Normally, he went to the gym after work. He could only do so many sit-ups in the open area of his studio apartment before he was desperate for something else.

It was day thirteen when Otabek was looking at exercise videos and he found it. He had been watching a push-up challenge that was going around, and one of the martial arts fighters he sometimes paid attention to had done two-finger push-ups to honor Bruce Lee. Before Otabek was able to close the screen, a response video started that made Otabek pause. 

The man in the video was beautiful. His hair was pulled back in some sort of hairstyle made up of braids and then a ponytail, and it was beautiful hair, a rich blond. His body was perfectly sculpted -- but Otabek was willing to bet that the man wasn't a fighter. 

He watched as this figure wearing only a pair of sweat shorts did the same ten pushups using the two-finger method, then he sat and looked at the camera for a moment. In that instant, Otabek was hooked. The man's eyes were stunning, a vibrant green like sea glass and so full of determination.

There was no way this man was a fighter, not with how perfect that man's fine features were. Thin nose, sharp eyebrows, high cheekbones, and the palest skin. When he spoke and the Russian accent could be heard, Otabek wasn't surprised. He looked like a movie star on Channel 1 -- it had been forever since he had watched Russian television, not since moving to America.

"My name is Yuri Plisetsky, and I am going to show that dancers can kick at this challenge. I am going to do 10 Planche pushups." Without another word, the man was moving -- and now that he has said he was a dancer, there had been so many clues that Otabek had missed. The mirrors on the far wall and a ballet barre had gone unnoticed as well as the very nice wooden floor.

Yuri placed his hands on the floor and then balanced on them. He suspended his body parallel to the floor, shoulders and feet even, as he counted, "One, two, three…" His form never wavered as he moved through the push-ups. At seven on his way up he pushed up faster, his palms leaving the floor for a second to his fingertips were now supporting him. On fingertips and in a planche position, he counted, "Eight, nine, ten." Then he lowered himself back down, his breathing a little hard and a fine sheen of sweat over his chest, "Don't forget to hit the subscribe button for more quarantine workouts."

While the video ended, Otabek hit subscribe. There wasn't really a reason not to. Tomorrow the garage he worked at was reopening. Vehicle maintenance was considered essential, so he'd be going back to some semblance of normal much earlier than other people.

The next day, Otabek had work. He got on his motorcycle and almost instantly realized how little traffic there was. His normal thirty-minute drive was done in ten. The shop normally held four mechanics, today, it only held two. That didn't change how many cars were broken. As he set about his day pulling a transmission, his mind kept wandering back to the Youtube video. Yuri had said to subscribe, which probably meant he had other content. The man was a dancer though. What would his videos that were not 'quarantine exercises' really be?

After replacing a transmission, tracking down an oil leak, fixing a truck with a trailer hitch short, and then completing not one but two brake jobs including flushing the lines of old fluid, Otabek was finally able to head home. The overtime from today would be nice though. They had switched to every other day, so he and the other guy would be working Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays while the other two mechanics would take the other days.

After a shower once he got home, he stretched out in bed with his laptop. There wasn't any harm in looking. He pulled up a browser to check out what other videos Yuri Plisetsky had made. It wasn't as if he was the first person to look up someone hot on Youtube.

All the recently uploaded videos were exercise videos using a chair and just two bottles of water as weights. They were challenging workouts, but it was clear they were geared to get hits. The fact the man did them in a skin-tight black T-shirt and black yoga pants was not lost on Otabek. Sure, it was a good clothing choice for working out and it made what Yuri was doing more noticeable, but it also didn't leave a lot to the imagination -- if only he didn't have that damn hoodie tied around his waist.

When Otabek rolled over and realized how late it was, his eyes widened, He hadn't realized he had spent that long on videos. Before closing it though, he did a quick scroll to see that the older videos were -- and then he realized how many there were. 

He has assumed, and maybe it was because of the Russian accent, that this Yuri Plisetsky was a ballet dancer. The video history showed something much much different. Evidently, before this virus wreaked havoc on everything, Yuri had been making choreography videos where he either broke down modern choreography or, it seemed, did his own to popular dance songs.

The clothes were different for these videos -- boots and skin-tight black pants with a metal adorned belt and a slightly looser T-shirt. Yuri's hair was only pulled back into a ponytail in most of these, but then he found one where the man's hair was loose. Watching him whip that blond hair around made for some very interesting thoughts. He fell asleep, videos still playing on the laptop, and the thought of how that man danced in his mind. It made for some amazing dreams though.

* * *

Otabek fell into a pattern. Work hard one day and then the next was errands, cleaning, and working out to Yuri Plisetsky's videos. They weren't what he would normally do, but the gyms were all closed and he didn't own his own set of free weights, so he didn't have that many options. 

At night, he'd go searching a little more into the video library. Some of his favorite videos were the ones where Yuri would be doing floor exercises and then the man's cat would try to get involved. He loved anytime Yuri had to pause, apologize and pick up the cat who was evidently named Potya or Posha depending on Yuri's mood (and whether he spoke Russian). Otabek really didn't think anything of it -- at least until he called his parents back in Almaty to check with them.

Mid-conversation about how he was working hard but still trying to be safe and wearing his mask when he was out in public, his mother suddenly asked, "Have you met someone?"

"What?"

"You sound happier." There was clear suspicion in the woman's voice.

With a deep breath, Otabek started to explain to his mother that no, he had not 'met someone' and he would tell her if he did. After the call ended though, he kept thinking, did he sound happier?

Almost everyone he knew was stressed and worried -- and yes, he was worried too, but he wasn't as stressed as other people at work. The only difference was the videos he had been watching. It was silly to think he had a crush on a guy he'd never even met. He had watched (and done) all the exercise videos that Yuri had posted so far. A new one should go up tonight, but until then, he was looking through old videos. They had started about two years ago. It was so easy to tell the chronology of the channel by how long Yuri's hair was. Two years ago, it had barely reached his shoulders.

Two years ago, Yuri was almost bouncy and the studio wall didn't have mirrors or a ballet bar. It was unpainted drywall but with a beautiful brand new sprung floor. Back then, Yuri had recorded a video every week on Monday like clockwork. Otabek went through all of them, laughing when that persistent cat got on camera and Yuri had to move her. These were dance videos and Otabek didn't dance, but he didn't mind watching the cute guy.

His going through the history ended when the subscription notification of the new video came through and Otabek finished the one he was on so that he could play the new one -- and he even got out of bed so he could actually do the workout.

At the end, Otabek was lying on the floor exhausted as a very sweaty Yuri approached the camera, "I just wanted to say thank you to all my subscribers. With everything going on, a lot of people are really hurting right now, and having income from these videos really has been a huge difference in my life. With everything shut down in my city, it means classes have been canceled, and I don't know when I'm going to be able to start teaching again, so having you guys has made all the difference. Thank you so much, and if you aren't already a subscriber, please hit the button to subscribe. I'll be reading the comment section for if you have any suggestions about exercises or music or pretty much anything -- except no, I am not cutting my hair." He let his lips slip into more of a smile as he tilted his head, "Besides, it's not like I could go and get it cut right now anyways, and maybe -- maybe if this hits enough likes, I will show a picture of what I looked like with a buzz cut next time. Take care, and don't forget to drink water and stretch."

Closing the laptop, Otabek did exactly that, and then got a nice shower. He was exhausted, but it was a good exhausted. By the time he was ready to go to bed, he realized -- he'd been thinking about Yuri all day. Maybe … just maybe he needed to find something else to obsess over. His dreams did not get that memo.

* * *

The next morning, bright and early, Otabek was driving to work when he had to take a slight detour due to some construction. The traffic was so light, it would still be fine. He'd get to work in plenty of time. His helmet on, he was waiting for a light to change as he put his feet down to keep his bike stable, the engine a slow rumble between his legs when something caught his eye. He glanced to the side to see a cat in the window of a store. The cat was pawing frantically at the glass with its attention focused on a pigeon on the sidewalk.

Shaking his head, Otabek turned back to the light. There were a lot of cats that were fluffy and had that same chocolate points pattern. It didn't mean anything that the cat in that window looked exactly like Yuri Plisetsky's cat.

The light changed and Otabek drove off. Soon he'd be covered in a combination of grease and transmission fluid and looking forward to a long shower after work. He didn't think anything more of the cat in the window, all he wanted was to finish work, get home, and get a shower.

He tried to pretend that once work was over, he didn't rush home to his apartment so he could look at Yuri's videos. He'd be lying if he told you that though. He didn't have to work tomorrow or the day after, he had the whole weekend to watch videos of Yuri so he picked off where he had left off. 

He had to make sure he hadn't skipped any, since there was a gap of almost two weeks between the next one and the one he had just watched last night. This time, Yuri was dressed much differently. It wasn't that he had a sweatshirt on and loose sweatpants, it was his expression. The man had dark circles under his eyes -- but maybe those happened easily with how pale he was.

Otabek watched the old video with the most critical eye he could. Everything was wrong. Yuri didn't smile. Yuri didn't joke. Even when Potya interfered, the cat was just picked up and placed out of view. Normally Potya got attention and was told she couldn't help but was very beautiful. Everything about this was wrong. 

After the older video played through, Otabek went back and forth trying to see what was different. He could swear it even looked like Yuri had lost weight between this sad video and the previous one where he was happy. The video had all been recorded almost a year ago though, and he knew that wasn't how Yuri looked now. 

Then he noticed a difference. In the sad video, Yuri didn't have a necklace tucked under his shirt. A quick look back and every video before this one, there was a necklace. In a few, if he looked carefully and zoomed in, it looked like a necklace that had something on it, but at no point could Otabek find it not under the shirt.

Feeling like a stalker, he went to bed. He could watch more videos tomorrow. 

Resting didn't last long. He couldn't sleep for more than a few minutes before he woke up again, drifting in and out of sleep until he finally gave up. He had to go clear his head. The thought of Yuri just would not leave his mind. Seeing the man so clearly hurting had done something to him, but with no option to actually make it right, he was left helpless. 

He grabbed his motorcycle helmet after just throwing on clothes. No one was out this late at night, it'd be fine to just drive and clear his head. He tried to tell himself how stupid this was. Whatever had happened in that video was almost a year ago, and Yuri looked fine in his current videos. Just the thought that there was a possibility that someone had hurt that man caused a burning in him that he couldn't shake.

Outside, the air was crisp. He had forgotten a jacket, but maybe that was for the best. The cold air was what he needed. He slid onto his bike to drive, not even realizing he had started to drive towards work on autopilot. The same construction was still going on, so he took the detour, but this time he pulled over in front of that window where the cat had been. Maybe he just wanted to reassure himself this was a different cat. He'd seen Potya on the screen so many times that he was sure he could tell the difference. He'd find something about this cat that was different, drive a bit more, and maybe then he could actually get some sleep.

When he pulled over, there wasn't a cat in the window though. As he walked up to the darkened shop, he looked through the glass, for the first time realizing what type of store it was. Cygnet Ballet Studio & Dance Shoppe. It was a generic enough name, but that it was a dance studio … well, it had to be a coincidence.

As Otabek looked in the window, seeing the stacks of leotards and the wall of shoes, he tried to shake the feeling of how impossible this was. A cat that looked like Potya living a mile from his apartment in a dance shop and studio. It was impossible.

As he stood there, a light form darted between racks, and then she was there, paws on the glass as he looked at him. The blue eyes, the long hair, the exact markings. There was no way this was not her. With a breath, he placed his gloved hand on the glass, watching as this presumed Potya batted at his fingers, the same way he had seen Potya on video try and play with Yuri when the man was trying to teach.

He couldn't just knock on a closed store at three AM. Only crazy people would do that. He paused, how could he do anything? He would seem like some crazy internet stalker -- and maybe he was. 

He glanced up, the shop seemed to be the main floor and the second floor was either living space or dance studio. He wasn't sure what the layout of the building was, and trying to figure out anything more right now would be much too close to being creepy.

Otabek needed to think. He couldn't  _ not _ do something, but he had to do the right thing. He wanted to meet Yuri. Maybe if he spoke to the man it would clear this obsession, but how could he do that? When he got back to the apartment, he had an idea.

Setting up his laptop so the camera would show the one wall with the nearly floor to ceiling window, he made sure you could see the lights of the bridge. Maybe most people couldn't identify his city from that, but if it was Yuri that had a studio only a mile from here, he'd recognize it. 

Then he did the only thing he could. He made sure that his hair was looking good and then put on a pair of workout shorts in dark khaki. He really hoped he would get this on the first try. He hit record, and gave the camera a smile, "Hi. My name is Otabek and I am originally from Kazakhstan. I don't normally do these things, but I wanted to respond to the push-up challenge, so following Yuri Plisetsky, I will first do ten pushups in the planche position, which means parallel by the way, I didn't know that until his video."

He took a deep breath, and he'd been practicing these, but ten was still a lot. He was determined as he started. His form wasn't as good and his arms moved a bit more. He knew he was a little wobbly, but soon he was counting, "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven." He paused, and with a deep breath popped up onto his fingertips for a very fast, "eight, nine, ten." He took a deep breath, but smiled as he had done it, "Those were not easy, so to respond, ten push-ups, left hand, right foot only." It wasn't as complex, but he really just wanted to do something and he knew this was something that looked hard, but that he could do.

When he finished, he tilted his head as he looked at the camera smiling, "I don't have a channel unless you are really into motorcycle repair, but if you are, I guess you can subscribe to me. Thank you and stay safe."

He ended the video, taking a deep breath as he realized this was a complete shot in the dark. He posted the video though in response to Yuri's -- but three other people had posted their own responses already. There was no guarantee that Yuri would even notice, let alone watch it. Otabek stood up. He was exhausted. He hadn't slept yet and already the sky seemed to be getting lighter. All he could do was grab a quick shower and then crawl into bed to try to fall asleep before the sun lit up the apartment.

* * *

The weekend passed with no response, and Otabek tried to put Yuri out of his mind. He did everything he could to distract himself. Most of his weekend was spent fixing car issues for a friend of a friend's grandmother. 

At least doing something kind made him feel less horrible about how he's been obsessing over Yuri -- and about the video. He had made the mistake of watching the video and his form was horrible compared to Yuri's, and his apartment wasn't great. At least it had been clean. If he had done that when he was fully awake and not after a night of not being able to sleep, he would have moved the bed fully out of the way -- or at least done something to make it not look like a little studio apartment. What was done was done. He had tried, it hadn't worked. He had tried though.

Monday, he took a different path to work. Driving past the dance shop would be too much. He hated this. He had never even met the man, but there he was now avoiding the shortest path to work like it was the home of an ex. 

Work at least was busy. With so many places not running at full capacity, there was a backlog of cars, so the moment he got to the shop he was able to start pulling apart a transmission.

He was on his third car of the day when he finally stopped for lunch. He needed to go to the grocery store -- that's what he should have done over the weekend instead of acting like a lovesick teenager. Instead, he had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches because that was all that was left in the cupboard and he didn't want to take the time to go get something.

Otabek was trying not to fall into the pit of feeling bad for himself. He hadn't even ever spoken a single word to Yuri. He kept trying to rationalize how he felt away, but he was failing. Checking his phone, he had email -- and then he paused, lunch forgotten. There was a comment on his video from 'y.plisetsky'.

He sat there, fingers paused over the screen. Should he look? What if it -- no, there was no reason in the world that the comment should be bad. He left his food in the breakroom to go to the back of the shop, hiding in the alley for a few moments so he could actually read the comment in privacy.

> Hey! Awesome. Looking good and you even did the last ones on the fingers too. Nice view …

Otabek read the three sentences a few times. Nice view. Well, two sentences and two words, 'Nice view' wasn't exactly a full sentence. It also wasn't an 'Oh Otabek, I saw how you did pushups and now I have to meet you' either. It was something though, and maybe he could respond to it without seeming like a stalker.

This time, it was daytime and he wasn't making his decisions half asleep. He went back to work, finishing the radiator repair he was in the middle of before moving on to his last car of the day. Of course, it was a door repair and replacing window motors sucked. It was late by the time he was driving home - and this time he didn't go out of his way to keep from driving past the store he was certain was connected to Yuri. Maybe in his trying to figure out things he should have looked up information on the store, but that had just seemed a step too far.

There was one thing different with the store now, a sign had been placed in the window offering both 'contactless pickups' as well as 'Online Zoom Dance & Exercise Classes'. The cat he was certain was Potya was laying in the window sunning herself. He was positive that cat was her, it was too much of a coincidence.

When he got back to the apartment after having picked up dinner, he started to type. He'd been thinking about what to say in response to the comment -- and he was going to respond. Maybe this would be a miss, but as the saying went, you miss one hundred percent of the chances you don't take.

> The best thing about my apartment is the view. Spending a lot of time alone looking at it, so it's good that it's nice. Well, when I'm not proving I cannot dance by trying some of your videos. I'm less bad at the exercise ones.

Maybe it was too forward, but what else was he going to do? It was as forward as he could be without saying, 'Oh Yuri. You are the most beautiful man I have ever seen, please message me'. That would be a red flag in anyone's mind. No sane person would do that.

He hadn't expected a response as fast as he got one.

> I bet you're better than you think you are. Check your DMs

That was something that Otabek hadn't expected. He went into his messages and then to the folder for 'strangers' and there it was.

> To: Altin.O.2015   
>    
>  Hey, it's Yuri. I'm doing this zoom thing for workouts and stuff, and here's a free link. If you want to. No pressure. I don't know how many people are going to sign up so I thought with you saying you were doing the exercise videos...
> 
> Thanks, Yuri

There was a link, and as soon as he saw the URL, he knew he had been right. CygnetDance was a coincidence that he couldn't ignore. That cat was Potya, and that meant Yuri worked only a mile away. He now had been given this information, this made it so it wasn't horrible for him to look at that store's website.

He almost responded first, but then he paused. He was going to look at the website. Pulling up the computer, he entered the address and the first image was Yuri in black ballet clothes with about 6 little girls all in light blue doing ballet as he instructed. He couldn't stop looking at that picture. The concentration in Yuri's face, the grace in every muscle of his body -- he just couldn't look away.

It didn't take long to find out that at the moment there were three instructors listed for the ballet school and one additional person who worked at the store and also dealt with ballet school registration. The 'about us' section laid that all out -- as well as the fact that it was Yuri's shop. It was Yuri's ballet studio.

He read through the brief synopsis of Yuri's life. He had been born in Moscow and then studied at the Vaganova Academy in Saint Petersburg. That explained how he could be running his own school while so young. The bio also included information on several companies he had danced with in different performances.

The other instructors taught other dance styles, hip hop, jazz, and tap. Yuri was the only one listed for ballet -- which from the 'pre-pause' class schedule showed he was doing the majority of the classes.

The shop was smaller than Otabek had assumed from the window. There were notices on the website about how to order for no contact door pick up as well as calling about mail order. The last picture on the page though was Potya curled up asleep on the counter next to the cash register. He had to smile at that. 

Yes, it was time to take a gamble. Otabek pulled up his messages and replied -- know exactly how this would come off. Instead of English, he switched his keyboard to Russian characters.

> _ I'm looking forward to it. See you Wednesday evening. ~Beka _

The offer of his shortened name was clearly an offer of familiarity, and he hoped that Yuri would accept that. The response was fast.

> _ Wednesday, stick around after the class so I can ask what you think? ~Yura _

Otabek couldn't hide the smile. Yes, Yura. He liked that. Maybe this was flirting, maybe he was reading this all wrong. He had to try. His response was just a simple 'of course', and all he could do was wait for Wednesday after work.

* * *

By the time Wednesday happened, he had watched all of Yuri's videos. Time seemed to go so slow, which wasn't helped by the fact that he had to take an entire dash apart to track down a wiring issue at work. Finally, he was rushing home, taking the fastest route possible so that he could get cleaned up before the class tonight. He'd eat after, he didn't have enough time to eat before.

When the time came, his hair was still wet, but he was dressed in a tight T-shirt from a band he really liked and was wearing black sweatpants. He was doing his best to look completely normal. As he waited for the zoom class to start, he made sure he had plenty of room and that his water bottle was just off-screen.

About a minute early, the session was started and Yuri was on the screen. It was clear he was looking at all the little windows to see who was missing, "Okay, we are going to wait just a few minutes for the last three people, but thank you all for coming. This is the first one of these classes I've done on zoom, so happy everyone could make it."

When he saw Yuri smiling like that, knowing this video was live, Otabek couldn't help but smile back. Maybe it was his imagination, but he thought he saw a little color reach Yuri's cheeks. It was only for a second though, and then the class began. Otabek had been doing all of the recorded workouts, so he had a good idea of what to expect. This class had been listed on the website as 'calisthenics'. The rest of the classes had sounded much more dance-orientated.

The workout was hard and grueling, but finally, it was over and Yuri was thanking everyone. Otabek was on the floor catching his breath. For a moment he almost hit the leave meeting button, but then he remembered the request.

As people left, he moved to a sitting position so he was closer to the camera. Finally, Yuri let the smile happen as he looked at the camera, "I just wanted to say thanks .. you know for showing up and everything. I …" His hand went up to his sweat-damp hair as he seemed to try and think of what to say.

"No, thank you. I -- I was kinda worried I'd come off as a little crazy with having watched all your videos."

"All?" 

As he looked at Yuri's surprised face, for a moment he was worried he had said too much, but the smile on the other man had relaxed him. "I only work three days a week now with everything, so I suddenly had a lot of free time, and -- well, I've been filling it all with your videos?"

"There's a lot of videos out there though …"

"Do you mean other people's?" Otabek took a deep breath, this was his chance. "I am sorry if this is …." What was this even? He just went for it. "I was watching some random videos and then your response to the pushup challenge started to autoplay and there was just something about you. Your eyes, the determination in them, and that someone as beautiful as you could have that determination." He had just called Yuri beautiful.

"You think I'm beautiful?" The smile widened a little, but one corner curled, almost a smirkish look.

"You know you're beautiful. I've read the reviews." He was smiling though, hoping the slight teasing tone was a good sign.

"Good, because I was really surprised this really hot guy had responded to my video -- and I don't think how you angled the camera for that was a mistake. So I know you're not far away." Yuri was still smiling, just a hint of uncertainty.

"I had to -- I was on my way to work the other week and there's a detour on 4th, so I had to take 6th …"

"6th …" Yuri very much knew that that was the road his shop was on.

"And I saw a cat in the window, and it looked just like Potya, and I couldn't get that out of my mind, so I checked the next time -- it looked just like her, and the coincidence, and I thought, if he was this close to me, I had to try?" This time the smile on Otabek's face was hopeful.

"That means you have my phone number already." Yuri was clearly trying to not look too nervous, "So I made the right choice inviting the hot guy to my zoom class?"

"Depends on if you want the hot guy to ask you on a date?"

"Of course I do. I mean, to as much as that's even possible right now."

"I have an idea. Have you eaten yet?" Otabek couldn't get rid of the smile.

"No, but I can't really -- I mean, no place is open."

"I know. Give me one hour, I'll grab take out, leave yours at your door and then call you and we can eat together but separate? Is that stupid? Normally I'd ask you out."

"So you ask a lot of guys out?" Maybe it was a tease, maybe it was serious from Yuri.

"No -- but I'd ask you out if I could."

With a laugh, Yuri nodded. "Sounds good then."

With Yuri ending the zoom with a smile, Otabek didn't even bother more than toweling off before he was grabbing food from one of his favorite places. He dropped it off at Yuri's front door and texted the number 'Food at your door' before leaving to rush home. By the time he was able to video call Yuri again, the man's laptop had been moved to a small table on what was clearly the second floor from the view out the window.

"It smells delicious, and I didn't know you had a motorcycle."

"Is that good or bad?" From the tone, Otabek already knew it was good.

"I'll look forward to a ride?"

"Yeah. I look forward to that too." He was smiling so much his face hurt. He never really smiled, maybe his mom had been right. Right now though, he had his first date with the most beautiful man he had ever seen who had the most determined eyes, and with luck, maybe Otabek would always get to see those eyes.

  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> If you are looking for me on Social Media:
> 
> Twitter = <https://twitter.com/ScribblesITM>
> 
> Tumbr = <https://scribblesinthemargins.tumblr.com/>


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